Death of a friend!

[omard]

So sorry.

Understand loss of friend.

I am still in morning over loss of my flame wrasse.

[aquaboy]

Coral_Reefer, you have my condolences. Losing a hermit makes me feel like i did something wrong, but losing a Ray would make me sob uncontrollably for weeks. Don't make yourself feel responsible, sometimes things die from things that cant be cured or even known about. I just lost my pet mouse, Mocha as we called her (she was brown like mocha and had a sister, Cappuchino {who was a light tan, and creme [who was white]), she died from cancer and we couldnt help her in any way. So, as i see it, you are a successful and skilled aquarist and i know that you take care of all of your pets with love and care, so i feel that you are not responsible for the death of your ray and please dont take it out on yourself, because as i have learned, it hurts your friends and family as much as it hurts you.

[coral reefer]

Originally Posted by Matt Rogers

I'd like to know why myself. Is it the size of the aquarium that can limit the success? Is it feeding? Maybe we can all learn something here.

To answer your question Matt, I don't think that the size of the tank had anything to do with the death of it. He was small enough for the time being to fit nicely in the tank. I fed him once to twice daily, he had fine grain sand to bury himself as is common with rays. He swam alot initially until the day or so before it died. He also started to show breathing changes, and didn't cover itself under the sand during the last two days of his life.
I fed a number of various foods such as brine and mysis shrimp, and formula food made just for rays and sharks.
Brian suggested that he suffocated, however, he lived for over 3 months so I don't think that that was the problem, plus I made sure to keep a powerhead along the top of the tank to aggitate the water and add dissolved oxygen at the air/surface interface.

I'm wondering if it was a result of water changes and possible changes in parameters between the new water and the existing tank water...?
Unfortunately I wil never know without doing an autopsy on it...However, I don't plan on pursuing that after watching that brady boy spilling out allover the pier by the shark in "JAWS"...heheheheh

[amcarrig]

Originally Posted by coral reefer

Unfortunately I wil never know without doing an autopsy on it...However, I don't plan on pursuing that after watching that brady boy spilling out allover the pier by the shark in "JAWS"...heheheheh

Sorry for your loss CR but that there is some funny stuff

[glampka]

Sorry for your loss Tom. As JB would say - Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On!!

[jimw369]

When I started the hobby some one on another site told me, "death is part of the hobby". Unfortunately they were right. In a crazy way its another part of the hobby that makes it the great pastime that it is. The challenge I guess.

Sorry for your loss CR...Im sure the yellow ray was way cool.

[geekdafied]

Originally Posted by Matt Rogers

I'd like to know why myself. Is it the size of the aquarium that can limit the success? Is it feeding? Maybe we can all learn something here.

Im thinking its probally a o2 problem, large fish/rays require a lot of o2 cause they consume a lot. A skimmer and a airstone wouldnt cut it IMO, unless the skimmer was rated for 3-4 times the tank size or had a serious airlift system on it like the critter had on their ray tank. They had a 600g pond they kept 6 rays in.

I think the minimum tank size reccommended on that ray is 180g with a lot of open room for it to swim and hunt. Anything like liverock in a 75g would hinder its survivability in such a small tank for that particular fish.

But like I said, if the water is testing out real good, and there is no stray voltage or anything like that then 02 looks like the culprit. If I remember correctly, CR had other fish in there too, which dont have as high of a demand for o2, and if they survived, that rules out stray voltage or almost anything else other then o2. IMO.

[BaxterS80]

Hey Reefer, I am truly sorry for your loss. I know what you mean, as keepers of aquatic creatures of any kind we are entrusted with their well being and care. It is so much more then keeping, we want them to thrive. It always pains me when one passes on..Over the years I have lost some awesome fish. We had a friedrichstahli cichlid for over 12 years. It was tough losing him. We had a Oscar for over ten, that was a tough one as he was as big as one of our small dogs(a bit of an exaggeration, but he was big)...He was an awesome fish. We had him in the living room and he always seemed to join us while we were watching tv. Karma to you...

[coral reefer]

No other fish in the tank as I moved them to the other tanks and I didn't have any live rock just the sandy bottom except for three pieces of live rock in the corner of the tank!

[sssnake]

Sorry to hear that CR